Feed-cutter.



o. MEILYI & P. BLUM/BERG, l ngen CUTTER. APPLICATIUN FILED lJAN. 29, 1915.

" Patented Feb. 5,1918.

. 2 SHEETS--SHEETl l.

' -OI MEILI & P. BLUMBERG.

FEED CUTTER.

APPLICATION FILED IAII.29V. IsIs.

Panama Feb. 5,1918.v

I 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. v'

OTTO MEILI AND PAUL BLUMBRG, OF NEW HOLSTEIN, WISCONSIN.

l Specification of Lettersratent.

rnnnou'rrnn.

rarenteareb. 5, 191e.

application led January 29, 1915. Serial No. 5,965.

improvements in feed cutters, and more particularly to the feed mechanism thereof.

One object of this invention is to provide a. novel arrangement of the feed rollers to form a V-,shaped throat which is variable in size by reason ofthe permitted vertical movement of certain of the feed rollers; such an arrangement causes the feed to be packed by successive steps until the cutting means is reached.

Another object of the invention is to provide an arrangement of feed rollerswhich are operated at progressively increasing speeds from the cutting means whereby the forage will be fed'to said means in a manner somewhat similar tomanual movement thereof. ,v

1With these objects in view the invention consists Of certain novel features of construction, .combination and arrangement of parts which will be hereinafter more particularly described and claimed and shown in the drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 represents a side elevational view of the feed box and operating mechanism of our improved forage cutter.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view indicated by the line 2-2 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 1s a plan View partly in horizontal section of the parts shown in the previously described figures with the exception that the cutter head is removed, and

Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section taken substantially on the plane of the line {1-11 of Fig. 2.

Referring more particularly to the accompanying drawings it will -be noted that the numeral 5 designates each of a pair of parallel sills havin cross beams 6 thereon, and

on each `sill an cross bea'm is mounted a feed box of our improved forage cutter.

. The cutter has a cutter head 7 of' an ordinary or improved design, the blades o which ceperate with a shear bar 8 spaced in front of the members which Vfeed the forage thereto.

This feeding means coinprises upper Yand lower front feed rollers 9 and, 1() respecj tively, upper and lower rear feed rollers 11 and 12 respectively, a. conveying belt 13, and a supplementary feed roller 18. The journals of the lower front and rear feed .rollers 10 and 12 respectively are so mounted inthe frame of the machine that the rollers are relativelyr fixed, while the journals of the upper front and rear feed rollers 9 and 11 respectively are rotatably dis osedin curvilinear slots formedin the si es of the feed c to run on the lower rear roller 12 as shown. n,

The sides of the feed box are provided with bracketslll for the support of the shaft 15 that is fixed therein, said shaft having hangers 16 loosely Vmounted thereon. `The free ends of the hangers are rovided with l bearings for the reception of t Ae ends of the shaft 17 of said supplementary feed roller 18 which isk disposed atthe lrear of the feed, box or back of the upper rear feed roller 11.

This supplementary feed roller'v is preferably formed of flanged polygonal heads to which v fiat plates 19 are connected, said plates each carrying an angle-bar 20, the bars being outermost and bolted or otherwise secured thereto. The feed roller 18 is therefore of polygonal and substantially corrugated form whereby to accomplish the best results. The shaft 17 of said supplementary feed roller extends through slotted guards 21 which are in pivotal connection with the` sides of the feed box as shown in Fig. 1 these guards being adapted to limit vertical movement of the eed roller.V

It is herenbefore noted that the rollers 9 and 11 are independently movable with respect to each other and are" also similarly arranged with res ect to the supplementary feed roller 18. lthough these rollers 9, 11

and 18 are capable of considerable vertical' movement upwardly, they are normally posed in their lowermost lposition in which position theirlowermost portions are in an l inclined lane extending uv wardlyand rearwardly -rom the point o contact. between the rollers 9 and 10. Ths'as Awill be seen from Fig. 2 provided a substantially V- shaped throat, the lower portion of the V being the plane of the conveyer belt13 and the uppermost portion, the rollers 10 and 12. In view of thefact that the feed rollers 9, 11 and 18 are movable vertically the size of the r -throat is variable.

The diameters of the various feed rollers 9, 10, 11, 12 and 18 are such, and the gearing or other drivingl connections between the same is vso arranged that the peripheral speeds of the several rollers are various. Moreparticularly the peripheral speed 1 vof the rollers 9, 10 and 12 is the same,

l from the roller 9 to the roller 18.

The purpose of this arrangement lis to simulate manual feeding of forage to the cut- -ting means. That is to say although there is a considerable pile of feed at the rear of the feed box, the bulk of the same is decreased as it is `moved toward the cutting means. bulk it is necessary to move the upper layers of theforage faster than the lower layers which, in the present machine'are moved by the conveying belt'13 while vat the same time pressing said upper layers downwardly.

As theupper -layer ofthe material is coml pressed its forward movement is lessened as .1t approaches the rollers 9 and 1Q which are To accomplish this reduction in directly responsible for supplying-the cutilng1 means with/.the proper amount of the From the foregoing description it will be obvious that we have invented a simply constructed forage cutter which will have all the advantages of the old manually fed machines without any of their attendant disadvantages, and furthermore the changes in construction and arrangement of parts will greatly increase the capability and efliciency of the present machine already over those of similar construction ywhich Iare in use.

We claim In a feed cutter having a rotary cutting means, a pair of relatively fixed lower feed rollers disposed rearwardly of the same and upon a common plane, and a conveyer belt carried by the rear lower feed roller, the combination .of a series of three upper feed rollers, two of the series being associated with the lower feed rollers andthe third roller of the series being positioned rearwardly of the-rst two rollers thereof and over the conveyer belt, means permitting independent yield of eachupper feed roller f means limiting the downward movement of eac-h upper feed roller whereby their working faces normally form a V-shaped feed throat in conjunction with the lower rollers and conveyer belt, and driving means for all of the feed rollers for imparting a progressive lincrease in the peripheral speed of the upper series of said rollers from the first to the third, and a uniform .speed to the first roller of the upper series and the lower set of rollers;

In testimony that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto set our hands at New Holstein in the county of Calumet and State of Wisconsin in the presence of two witnesses.

OTTO MEILI.

, P. BLUMBERG.

Witnesses:

FREDERICK BnLLwmxm, ALMA Anrs. 

